Clermont-Ferrand ZFE 2026: Only Unrated Vans, Lorries
Zone à Faibles Emissions · France · Active since 2023
Source: official source · Verified: 2026-09-27
Only vans and lorries with no Crit'Air classification are stopped in Clermont-Ferrand, 24 hours a day inside the boulevard ring. Private cars and motorbikes are outside the scheme entirely.
Locally the zone is called Zone à Faibles Emissions Clermont-Ferrand (France) — that is the wording on the boundary signs, on the official portal and on any penalty notice, so it is the phrase to search for once you are there.
Next
- Check your own car against Clermont-Ferrand — enter your fuel and Euro class, get a yes or no in one step.
- Clermont-Ferrand has a zone too — the nearest one to Clermont-Ferrand, and the rules are not identical.
- If a fine arrives after you get home — who pays on a hire car, and what is actually enforceable across borders.
Practical answers for Clermont-Ferrand
- When is the Clermont-Ferrand zone active?
- 24/7 That means there is no free window — the restriction applies on Sundays and public holidays too.
- How much does it cost to drive into Clermont-Ferrand?
- EUR 5.11 for a foreign-registered car, EUR 3.85 on French plates (including postage) · Crit'Air vignette Get it wrong and the penalty is EUR 68 (cars, motorcycles, light commercial), EUR 135 (HGV, buses, coaches).
- Do I need to register or buy anything first?
- Crit'Air vignette Official portal.
- Who is exempt in Clermont-Ferrand?
- Crit'Air 1 and Zero vehicles and Emergency vehicles. Exemptions are usually not automatic — most require registering your number plate in advance.
Didn’t France abolish its low-emission zones?
No — the repeal never took effect. Parliament did vote in April 2026 to abolish France’s ZFEs, which is why so many guides and news reports say they are gone. The Conseil constitutionnel struck that article down on 21 May 2026 (décision n° 2026-903 DC), so the ZFE provisions of the code général des collectivités territoriales (articles L. 2213-4-1 and L. 2213-4-2) stayed on the books.
The zone in Clermont-Ferrand is therefore still in force and you still need a Crit'Air vignette on the windscreen. Turning up without one because you read that ZFEs were scrapped is the expensive version of this mistake — the penalty is EUR 68 (cars, motorcycles, light commercial), EUR 135 (HGV, buses, coaches).
One caveat most coverage misses: the article was annulled on procedure, not on its merits — the Council held it was a “cavalier législatif”, an amendment with no link to the bill it was attached to (Constitution, art. 45). Parliament can pass the same repeal again in a properly related bill, so this is settled for now rather than settled for good. Read the decision.
Clermont-Ferrand Zone à Faibles Emissions Map
The shaded area is the zone boundary as mapped in OpenStreetMap — zoom in to see which streets fall inside, and confirm the signs at the edge on arrival.
Requirements
Who pays in a hire car, whether insurance covers it, and how to appeal.
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Exemptions
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Clermont Auvergne Métropole’s ZFE has run since 1 July 2023, every day and around the clock, inside the ring formed by the Pourchon and Lavoisier boulevards to the north, Loucheur and Bingen to the south, Berthelot and avenue de la Libération to the west and Saint-Jean and Jouhaux to the east. Inside it, only light commercial vehicles and lorries with no Crit’Air classification are barred: the national ZFE portal states that “les voitures particulières et motos ne sont pas visées par le dispositif” (mieuxrespirerenville.gouv.fr).
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Zone | ZFE (Zone à Faibles Emissions) |
| In force since | 1 July 2023 |
| Vehicles covered | Light commercial vehicles and lorries only |
| Cars and motorbikes | Outside the scheme — no Crit’Air threshold |
| Restriction level | Unclassified vehicles (no Crit’Air category) |
| Sticker | Crit’Air vignette, EUR 5.11, for the categories covered |
| Fine | EUR 68 light vehicles, EUR 135 lorries and coaches |
| Operating | Every day, 24 hours |
| Perimeter | Inside the Pourchon–Lavoisier–Loucheur–Bingen–Berthelot–Saint-Jean ring |
Can your car enter Clermont ferrand zfe?
Enter your vehicle's fuel + Euro class → instant verdict for Clermont ferrand zfe (ZFE). Fine if wrong: EUR 68 (cars, motorcycles, light commercial), EUR 135 (HGV, buses, coaches).
Clermont-Ferrand ZFE — who it actually stops
A ZFE normally reads as a warning to car drivers, and in most French cities it is one. Clermont-Ferrand built its scheme the other way round: the restriction attaches to goods traffic, and a private car is simply not part of the mechanism.
Who can enter
- Private cars: any Crit’Air class, any fuel — no restriction and no vignette obligation for this zone
- Motorcycles and scooters: outside the scheme
- Vans and lorries with a Crit’Air category: allowed, vignette displayed
- Vans and lorries with no Crit’Air category: barred from driving and parking inside the perimeter
Sticker and registration
For the vehicles that are covered, the Crit’Air vignette costs EUR 5.11 including postage and is ordered from the state portal at certificat-air.gouv.fr. It arrives by post, so an order placed the week of a delivery arrives too late.
Enforcement and fines
Checks combine roadside stops and plate-reading cameras. A covered vehicle caught inside the perimeter without a valid category faces EUR 68 as a light vehicle and EUR 135 as a lorry, bus or coach.
Before you drive into Clermont-Ferrand
- Identify your vehicle category first — car, or light commercial vehicle. That single answer decides whether the zone concerns you.
- If you run a van or lorry, read the Crit’Air category off the registration document; the risk here is having no category at all, not having a poor one.
- Plan nothing around opening hours: the perimeter is active continuously.
Recent changes to this page
- Crit'Air sticker price corrected to EUR 5.11 for a foreign-registered car (EUR 3.108 certificate + EUR 2.00 postage, certificat-air.gouv.fr price service); EUR 3.85 applies only to French plates.
- Rewritten against the national ZFE portal: the zone has run since 1 July 2023 (the key-facts table said 2025), applies 24/7 rather than weekdays 08:00-20:00, and restricts only unclassified light commercial vehicles and lorries. The Euro 2 petrol / Euro 4 diesel floor in the table and the Euro 3 / Euro 5 line in the entry section were removed, since no Crit'Air threshold applies to any vehicle here.
- Title, description and introduction rewritten from this page's own data (no shared template wording).
- Aligned the dates on this page with TyreMap zone data after it was re-verified against the official register.
- Page created — ZFE active since 2023, fine EUR 68 (cars), EUR 135 (lorries).
Part of the TyreMap Emission-Zone Dataset — 596 verified European emission zones, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.